a5c7b9f00b Jacq Vaucan is an insurance agent of ROC robotics corporation who investigates cases of robots violating their primary protocols against altering themselves. What he discovers will have profound consequences for the future of humanity. In 2044, solar storms have killed 99.7 % of the world&#39;s population and only 21 million people survive. The ROC Corporation has designed and built robots called Automata Pilgrim 7000 to help to rebuild the world. These robots have two security protocols; they can neither harm humans nor alter themselves or other robots. When police officer Sean Wallace shoots a robot and claims that it was altering itself, ROC insurance agent Jacq Vaucan is placed in charge of the investigation. Soon he believes that there is a &quot;clocksmith&quot; illegally modifying the robots. Jacq wants to live in the coast and asks his boss and friend Robert Bold to transfer him with his pregnant wife Rachel Vaucan to the coast. Robert offers the possibility if Jacq resolves the case. Jacq and Wallace go to a brothel where the modified robot Cleo attends and Wallace shoots its leg, expecting that the owner will lead them to the clocksmith. They meet Duprè but she is not the clocksmith that is modifying the robots. Soon Jacq discovers who is the responsible for modifying the robots but the Powers that Be in ROC believe that Jacq is the one to be blamed. Now, lets get down to it, Boppers. What did I get out of Automata (2014)? Whew. Let me start by throwing out one bias towards the film that could swing this review in it&#39;s favor… or reverse the verdict all together. It took me about three sittings to watch this film mostly because it was late at night when I started it. That being said, my lord is it a slow start. I tried to get into this movie. I really did. Especially, because of my fondness for Isaac Asimov and his take on modern robotics. But this was a touch too much. And certainly not of Asimov standards.<br/><br/>Slow is not the word for this film. Dragging with a hint of dramatized over importance seems a better term. It took a long time in a very boring world to get to the interesting plot points which took place in an even more boring backdrop. Now, I am all for intellectual think pieces with smart payoffs. but this was trying my patience. I actually yearned for a few more explosions and mindless chase sequences. Something to keep me awake, until the mildly interesting third act.<br/><br/>As to not sound bitter and give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt (having worked in film, I know it&#39;s not easy), I think the film looked great. Shot well. Cut well. The special effects were tight. The acting… first let me say, I am a fan of Antonio Banderas. He pulled his weight. With the film resting mostly on his shoulders, he came off like a pro. Doing what he could with what he was given. That brings me to one Ms. Melanie Griffith. Having had her moment in the sun on past films, I wont&#39;t be too critical. But to cast hera roboticist? Really? I won&#39;t go any further into the matter, but you get the point. This future dystopia ismuch funa bad midlife crisis, almost everyone is crawling around ruined and fearful and there isn&#39;t a ray of hope apart from the cute little babies - human and robotic. Everyone is surviving rather than living and this is what the film is about - so the enlightened robots and humans nuclear families (literally in robot case) team up against the bad men to create respective futures. Its all a bit muddy and the bad men don&#39;t make much sense. There&#39;s no society in any of this, which might have made it a bit more interesting. It just doesn&#39;t work well enough to bother with any meaning except thru wondering about how it came to be so bad. Automata has moments of tremendous visual and storytelling elegance which are punctuated with ham-fisted characterization and thunderingly terrible acting.
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